To complement a unit on gardens or flowers, start by making vegetable and fruit prints. Cut peppers, apples, carrots and potatoes in half. Dip the smooth sides in paint and press onto construction paper for brightly colored prints. Press cut herbs into ink pads for a similar effect. Display samples of artists' renditions of flowers or fruit, such as Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." Offer paint or collage materials and allow the children to make their own paintings.
A dinosaur theme offers plenty of opportunities to create and get messy. Place a tiny, plastic dinosaur in a balloon for each child, and blow up the balloon. Cut tissue paper into 3-inch pieces. Lay the tissue paper over the balloon and paint the tissue paper with liquid starch. Continue working until you completely cover the balloons with two or three layers of paper. Let the balloon dry overnight, and then pop it. You will have a dinosaur egg with a baby dinosaur inside. This method is similar to paper mache, but less messy. You can also add coffee grounds to a homemade Play-Doh recipe to make "dirt" Play-Doh. Press toy dinosaurs into the Play-Doh to make imprints, or fossils. In addition, mold dinosaurs out of clay and display them in a "dinosaur museum."
For an ocean-life theme, make a group mural to represent the ocean. Spray a large sheet of butcher paper with blue, purple and green paint placed in spray bottles. Make samples of ocean animals to add to the mural. Cut fish shapes out of construction paper. Paint the fish with glitter paint or corn syrup to which you've added food coloring for brilliant, shiny fish. Make crabs out of paper plates. Each child will paint two plates red. When the plates are dry, fold one in half and staple it shut around the edges. Cut claws out of the remaining plate and staple them to the edge of the folded paper plate. Add black dots for eyes.
Offer paint, fabric, ribbons, textured papers or shiny materials to the children to create art inspired by the picture books you read. For example, Ezra Jack Keats mixes paint and collage techniques to make the colorful illustrations found in his classic stories, such as "The Snowy Day" and "Pet Show." Show these illustrations to the children and give them materials to imitate an artist's style. Choose creative projects over cutesy ideas that all look the same. Leo Lionni and Eric Carle also use collage and child-like techniques worthy of imitation. Use "Eric Carle: Picture Maker" or "You Can Make a Collage: A Very Simple How-To Book," both written by Eric Carle, to guide your instruction.